influencer 36

In an instant – everything changed

It all happened last year when COVID hit, we were told to work from home. I was one of the lucky ones that still had a job when the day was done. However, where I work is not truly satisfying to me. Of course, it pays the bills and I get to work from home, but I am still not completely fulfilled with the work that I do. I work in government and am restricted to the rules and policies that are enforced, being part of a union and paying dues and all the extra funds that get taken out of your paycheck (in which I don’t get a say in what gets taken out or where it goes).

I went back to the drawing board and asked myself “If I were to lose my job today, what would I do?” I graduated with a BS degree in Graphic Design but those jobs when I graduated were few and far between. You had to be great to even be considered for one of them. So, I just got jobs where I could pay the bills. I have always been interested in how websites are designed and what the inner workings look like.

Back in 2014, I started a blog on the free WordPress.com site because that’s what everyone was doing, I was so impressed that I changed the theme every week.

Then, fast forward to 2020 and a lot of free emails about learning how to blog later, I was looking into as much information about coding as possible. However, because bootcamps were the rage and expensive, I investigated free/cheaper alternatives like freecodecamp.org, Codecademy, LinkedIn Learning.

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In the spring, I stumbled across Julia’s free 5-day website challenge and was genuinely interested in how she was teaching it.

I learned quickly and loved her teaching style which I could relate to. Then I signed up for GeekWeek and was blown away by all the content she presented and her guest presenters. I loved it!

Of course, I wanted to purchase her course during that time but wanted to do more research to make sure there wasn’t something better out there that compared in price and content. I did not find anything, so I waited until she opened WP Rockstar for purchase in September. I was so excited when I hit purchase. I even set a goal for myself to make my investment back by my birthday in April 2021.

Well, after I purchased her course, I watched those videos and just devoured the content. I even wrote everything down (even though she had transcripts) so I could retain the information better. I created my website (3 designs/themes later), figured out my niche (sort of…), and put my business out there live in December! Oh, that was terrifying! I was so nervous but knew I had to push through. I put myself out there on social media and advertised to family and friends and in that same month, I was contacted by someone who need help with their social media content. We started working together in January 2021 and I got my investment back by April 2021, which was my goal.

Since then, I have gained the confidence to meet people, gain connections, and felt proud to say I have a web design business. My next goal for 2022 is to start a blog, gain more clients, and increase sales so I can work on leaving my full-time job.

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